Women, Conservation, and Natural Resource Use: A Case Study of Bwindi, Uganda
Abstract
In developing countries, men and women use and depend on natural resources in distinctly
different ways. Women are predominantly the water-gatherers, the firewood-collectors,
and the farmers, as well being the family-caretakers. Furthermore, women in developing
countries often lack many basic rights such as land ownership, access to income, and
access to education. Their health and wellbeing are inextricably linked to their dependence
on natural resources. Their lives are connected to the natural environment such that
deforestation or losing access to resources within a protected area negatively impact
women living in that ecosystem in multiple unanticipated ways.
Owing to the importance of natural resources in women’s daily lives, it becomes imperative
for conservation activities in protected areas to consider gender. My Master’s Project,
thus, sought to understand the consequences of protected area conservation on women’s
lives. To do so, I conducted a qualitative case study in Bwindi, Uganda. I interviewed
36 women in 11 villages along the protected area of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
to understand their perceptions of conservation and to investigate the ways their
needs and concerns could be more fully integrated into conservation management.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) is home to approximately half of the world’s
mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei). BINP is one of Uganda’s most successful
tourism locations and the Uganda Wildlife Authority which manages the park created
a revenue-sharing program to distribute funds to park-bordering communities in order
to encourage conservation value of the protected area.
My study investigates and interprets what conservation looks like for local women
living along the park border, in order to bear witness to their stories and determine
the successes or failures of current conservation practices in Bwindi, Uganda. My
results indicate a disconnect exists between the dominant conservation narrative promoting
the conservation of the mountain gorilla and the value local women place on conservation.
My study, furthermore, examines the claim of community-integrated conservation and
the projection of global conservation values onto local people living beside a protected
area.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/8574Citation
Blair, Alexandra (2014). Women, Conservation, and Natural Resource Use: A Case Study of Bwindi, Uganda. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/8574.Collections
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